I'll Never Turn My Back (On Someone Who Loved Me Too)
by Her Is In Hero
Summary: "If we don't stop them now you won't have a house left standing." She warned, setting her tea down and heading for the stairs. *12th in the Like A Stain series*


Skye has dreamt of meeting May's mother for... For as long as she'd started to get to know May. She'd even had the opportunity at Christmas when May had invited her, but Bobbi and Hunter had kidnapped her to England instead.

Her next opportunity she was unconscious so it really shouldn't count. Especially since when she wakes up Bobbi and Hunter are pissed at her. It's been a long time since her powers had gotten out of control, she was usually pretty good with recognising her limits. But, they'd been chasing down Sonic the Hedgehog on steroids, and her powers didn't seem to be enough. Bobbi kept telling her to watch her limits, that it was okay if she couldn't keep the vibrations up for long enough.

Skye keeps the vibrations up longer than she should and it still wasn't enough to neutralize Sonic on steroids.

She keeps the vibrations up past her limits and Hunter tells her rest before something bad happens. She doesn't listen, insists that she can keep going even when her nose starts bleeding and her head starts hurting. Her head more than hurts.

Hunter manages to shoot the hedgehog in a weak spot with an Icer. Followed by another three rounds just to be sure.

Bobbi is too busy catching Skye, stopping her from falling to the ground unconscious. It wasn't just her nose that was bleeding; blood had dripped from her ears, streaked from her eyes like tears, stained her lips. For a long, heartbreaking, gut-wrenching moment Bobbi couldn't find a pulse.

Skye had gone byond overusing her powers.

Hunter was next to the the instant he was sure Steroid-Sonic was down for the count, shaking fingers wiping clumsily at blood and murmuring pleas for Skye to be alright.

Bobbi got up and walked over to the blue spikey Inhuman; in his unconscious state his mouth was hung open and her gun aimed perfectly into his mouth as she unloaded a full clip into him. Screw Coulson's protocol to bring him in. Coulson had made the same call to bring Ward in once before, she wasn't giving this asshole the chance to do that sort of damage as well. Carl Creel had been taken into custody and he'd ended up killing Izzy.

Some people just shouldn't be taken into custody.

* * *

The closest safe house is two hours away. When Bobbi tells May that Skye is unconscious from overusing her powers, the older woman rattles of the coordinates and says she'll meet them there.

Skye is still unconscious when they get there and Mrs. May greets them with a stern look. The woman gives them a long look before letting out a 'hmph' and pointing them to take Skye to a guest bedroom.

Skye is still unconscious when May gets there and tells her mother that this is the girl. That's all she needs to say for the older May to understand. The unconscious girl in her guest bedroom with a hovering blonde and worrisome Englishman is the same girl that made her daughter less Agent May and more Melinda.

* * *

Skye is unconscious through the whole night and it worries Bobbi. The bleeding has stopped, and her pulse is strong under her fingertips, but she hasn't woken up. No-one knows the full extent of her powers, or the full repercussions; what if there's brain damage? What if Skye never wakes up?

They're the questions none of them can voice out loud, but they're all thinking.

They don't want to move Skye yet, just in case something happens in transit, but they have to start thinking about it because Bobbi is a scientist, not a medical doctor, she can make do, but Skye really needs an actual M.D.

"Bob?" Lance comes to sit next to her at Skye's bedside. May and May had kicked them both out of the guest room to shower and eat by the time morning came around.

"She looks like she's sleeping." The blonde brushed some loose strands of dark hair from Skye's face.

"I know, Love." He presses a gentle kiss to her temple. "You know she'd flip out if she knew she was here." Bobbi couldn't help but smile, because it was true. Skye would have been an overly excitable chipmunk if she knew she was in the same house as May's mother. "Do you think she knows? Think some part of her is awake right now?"

"If she knew she wouldn't be unconscious." Bobbi scoffed, her hand moving down to Skye's. Her fingers were cold - not dead cold, she would be able to handle that - but colder than usual, and they didn't curl around hers like they normally would. "She'd be following May's Mom around like a puppy."

"Doing that funny head-tilt thing an' all." Lance grinned, "bet it'd even work too; Mrs May would probably make her cookies and cupcakes and other Grandma things."

"Yeah, Mrs May will bake cookies and May will start a book club." Bobbi snorted, rolling her eyes. "More like Tai Chi and weapons training."

"Yeah, that'd be fun, 'cause I'm not already surrounded by enough deadly women." Lance shook his head.

Silence. Long and sombre.

"She will wake up, right, Bob?" The question they'd both been too afraid to ask.

"Right." Bobbi swallowed thickly. "She'll wake up in any minute now and demand her morning kisses and whine about having to get out of bed." It was a lie and they both knew it, but it was comforting.

* * *

Skye woke up half way through the second day.

Bobbi was sleeping, an arm held protectively across Skye. Hunter was outside, dutifully tending to the flower garden under Mrs. May's orders. It gave him something to do that wasn't wallow in his fears. Mrs. May was watching him carefully - she'd say it was to make sure he didn't destroy her garden, but the boy looked like he was two seconds away from snapping and going mad.

May was the one sitting by Skye's bed when the first signs of consciousness arose; eyes darting behind closed lids, whimpers and whines, twitching fingers reaching for something they couldn't find. Morse was in a deep sleep - helped along by something from her mother - but she still managed to cling tighter to the girl and flex her fingers as well. May just reached forward and rearranged the two women so they hands were closer together, watching as they moved to hold each other and press their marks together.

The comfort of the touch was enough to make Skye hum in her sleep.

Hunter burst into the room barely two minutes later and settled himself on the other side of the bed without a word. How he knew what had happened, May had no idea.

* * *

Hope had given way to relief by the first time Skye's eyes fluttered open.

Relief had turned to exasperation when the young woman had tried to get out of bed less than ten minutes later, insisting she was fine.

Exasperation had led to an hour long shouting match in which Bobbi and Hunter lectured Skye - loudly and with gratuitous amounts of swearing - that pushing herself beyond her limits like she had was stupid and foolish and dangerous and if she ever scared them like that again they'd never forgive her.

"Three of them?" Melinda's mother raised an eyebrow at her. "Who is marked?"

"Does it matter?" Melinda raised her own eyebrow as she sipped at her tea.

"A relationship is between two marked, Melinda, unless it is familial or platonic." Lian shook her head, " _two_ , not **three**."

"Because that worked so well for you and Dad?" That earned her a glare from her mother. "Skye has two marks; Hunter is marked to Morse, and Morse is marked to Skye." Technically true, Skye did have two marks - still the only known case of more than one mark on a person - they both just were for both of the people upstairs with her.

"Two marks?" Lian frowned. "Impossible."

"The girl is a walking impossibility, Mom, she seems to thrive on defiance." As if on cue there was a thump upstairs.

"I'M FINE!" Skye's voice sounded through the walls and floor.

"FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, SKYE, SIT YOUR ASS DOWN!" Morse's voice followed, another thump, a loud yelp.

"GET OFF ME, HUNTER!" The whole house shook, Melinda sighed.

"If we don't stop them now you won't have a house left standing." She warned, setting her tea down and heading for the stairs.

When the May women reached Skye's guest bedroom it was to t he sight of Skye once again unconscious in the bed, and Morse and Hunter worrying around her, bickering.

"What did you do, Hunter?"

"Me?" The Englishman yelped. "What makes you think it was me?" Three perfectly arched eyebrows raised in his direction. "I was just trying to get the stubborn Beast to lay down, she's the one that shot the tremor at me and knocked me on my arse."

"Passed out again right after, I think her powers are exhausting her." Morse provided with a sigh. "Like running a marathon and then trying to run another one straight away; her body can't handle it again so soon so it shuts down."

"That's what happens when you over do it. I told her not to, I told her to stop, but does anyone listen to me? No." Hunter grumbled, picking himself up off the floor. "It's like I'm just here for bloody comic relief."

"Oh, Honey, if you were the comic relief, we would have gotten rid of you a long time ago." Morse gave him a pat on the shoulder as she sat next to Skye's bed again.

* * *

The second time Skye woke she sat in bed like a good little Inhuman and let Bobbi and Lance lecture her about 'recognising limits', 'overextending her abilities' and 'stupidly risking unknown consequences and making them worry while she was unconscious for two days'.

Skye is pretty sure they'd still be lecturing her if Mrs May hadn't interrupted with lunch and her stomach had growled loudly enough that she was sure the neighbours - who lived a good four miles away - could hear it. Mrs May is exactly how she imagined May's mother to bed; strict, stern, unforgiving in her discipline, kick ass, and with the same silent affection that May gave her.

Skye didn't know if she had any grandparents; her father never talked about any before he went through T.A.H.I.T.I except for his fathers field medical kit. And her mother was, like, super old so her parents were probably long dead. But, with May there and Mrs May as well it felt like she'd always imagined a mother and a grandmother should feel like.

* * *

Mrs May has a full gym in her basement - because of course she does - and that's where Bobbi lets out her frustrations. She was angry, hurt, worried, scared, frustrated, relieved... Angry that Skye had pushed herself too far, hurt that she hadn't listened when she and Lance told her to stop, worried that there were more side effects for pushing herself so far that they didn't know about yet, scared of what could have happened if Skye hadn't woken up, frustrated that her infuriating Soulmate didn't seem to understand why her and Lance were so upset, relieved that Skye was alive and awake to hear their frustrations.

Her knuckles were bruised, cut and bleeding by the time she finished at the punching bag, and she sat silently while May just shook her head and started treating the cuts.

* * *

Mrs May - Zǔmǔ, she had insisted Skye call her - didn't approve. When she'd asked May about it - did her mother not like her? - her mentor had just told her that it wasn't important. But, it was important, because May's mother didn't like her for some reason and it made her stomach twist uncomfortably.

It was on the third day when Lian came into the guest room with breakfast that Skye figured it out. The way she swatted at Hunter and Bobbi in bed next to her - Bobbi clinging to her, and Hunter on Bobbi's other side, flicking through emails on his phone - they she shook her head and muttered under her breath, the way she frowned at her lovers and told them that she was already overstimulated, and did not need to have _two other people in bed with her_.

Oh.

Mrs May didn't approve of their relationship.

Skye knew they'd gotten lucky when everyone at the Playground had accepted the three of them in a relationship. And Hunter's mother had been confused and a little put off by them, but ultimately just wanted her son to be happy. Bobbi's parents had readily accepted them. But, not everyone would accept them. Not everyone would understand. Not everyone would approve.

Mrs May didn't approve.

She was traditional, thought a relationship should be between two bonded people.

Even if she hadn't been that traditional - if she believed that people could be in love without a mark - there was still three of them in the relationship and Skye had a feeling that's what it was really about. Two people in a relationship - a couple - not three.

Skye knew not everyone would accept them; most of the world would disapprove, but they'd never actually met one of those people until now. It had always just been the Agents they were closest with and their families, and they'd all come around to the idea eventually.

It hurt a little to find out that Mrs May was one of the people who disapproved. Because she was the closest thing Skye had to a grandmother.

* * *

"You're upsetting the girl, Mother." Melinda reprimanded her mother as the two prepared dinner with practiced efficiency.

"And yet the child lives on." Lian pursed her lips. "The world will not crumble, Melinda, if one person is upset that another person does not approve."

"No." Melinda agreed, though if anyone could make the world crumble it would be Skye. "The world will keep going."

"I don't dislike the girl, Melinda, I dislike her choices." Lian shook her head, she actually quite liked the girl, she could understand how she'd managed to worm her way into her daughters heart.

"Love isn't a choice, Mom." Between the two of them the food preparations had taken half the time. "They're good for each other."

"If that is true, they will continue to be good for each other." Lian replied, "my approval won't matter."

* * *

When May is taking them all back to the Playground Skye sits in the back, nestled next to Bobbi, her fingers clenched around a gift from Lian - Zǔmǔ. Bobbi and Hunter are talking amongst themselves about 'monitoring her powers and limitations', Skye took comfort in the soft hum of their voices as she turned the gift over and over in her fingers.

A grouping of three small, old, bronzed coins with Chinese symbols on them tied together with a red ribbon.

On the surface it looked identical to the one her mother had given her, but she'd spent hours studying the ones from Jiaying. This one had different symbols, May said that they meant protection.

May said her mother had given them to her as a child, to protect her when Lian was away on missions.

Now they were Skye's. It felt like a family heirloom.

She tried not to dwell on the last time she held a talisman like this. Because May and Lian weren't Jiaying.

"You okay, Rockstar?" She brought out of her thoughts by Bobbi's light touch tugging on the ends of her hair. "Your head hurt again? Shit, do you need-"

"I'm okay." Her fingers closed tightly around the coins. Skye craned her neck up to press a kiss to the blonde's lips.

"Hey, where's my kiss?" Hunter demanded.

"You can kiss my ass." Bobbi offered sweetly, Skye rolled her eyes and smiled when they started bickering.

* * *

 **1: Zǔmǔ - I think it means Grandmother.  
** **2: Realistically not everyone would like their triad relationship, and I imagine Mrs May would be a traditionalist. She still adores Skye, she just doesn't like her relationship with Bobbi and Lance.  
** **3: I was all over the place with this chapter.  
** **4: Sorry for the long wait.  
** **5:I had more notes I wanted to say, but I've forgotten them :P**


End file.
